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<\/p>\nOpening day of the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix delivered a chaotic shootout as teams battered wet and wild conditions on the Hudson. Gusts of up to 40km\/h wreaked havoc on the fleet \u2013 as only three teams competed due to extreme winds limiting pre-race craning operations.<\/p>\n
Four F50 catamarans were launched \u2013 Australia, Emirates GBR, Spain and the U.S. \u2013 determined by championship standings; however, only three made the startline after the Bonds Flying Roos suffered a dramatic pre-race nosedive caused by a hydraulic issue on-board.<\/p>\n
Competing on home waters for the first time this season, U.S. SailGP Team driver Taylor Canfield said: \u201cIt was very gusty \u2013 just a crazy racecourse. At times, it was fully under control and everything felt normal. Then you\u2019re bearing away in a 20-plus knot puff, doing nearly 100 km\/h coming into a rock wall, and you need to drop the board and gybe the boat. But the guys did a great job. Obviously, not having that warm-up lap was not the best for us, but we were pushing hard around the racetrack.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
United States SailGP Team driven by Taylor Canfield and Los Gallos SailGP Team driven by Diego Botin in action by Manhattan skyline on Race Day 1 of the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix in New York, USA. Saturday 30 May 2026. Rolex SailGP Championship Event 6 2026 Season. Photo: Simon Bruty for SailGP. Handout image supplied by SailGP<\/p>\n
Three races were staged, with home favorite the U.S. SailGP finishing last (third of three boats) in races two and three, after being unable to compete in race one.<\/p>\n
Instead, opening day in New York belonged to the two chasing heavyweights \u2013 Emirates GBR and Los Gallos \u2013 who traded blows in a masterclass of high-speed overtakes and tactical execution. Emirates Great Britain\u2019s Dylan Fletcher claimed the opening race, but Spain\u2019s Diego Bot\u00edn mastered the wind and waves to win the second and third.<\/p>\n
A fresh, northerly breeze cutting directly over Manhattan skyscrapers created highly turbulent, gusty, and shifty conditions across the racecourse. A set up Rolex SailGP Season 4 Champion Diego Bot\u00edn called \u201csuper tough.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
BONDS Flying Roos SailGP Team driven by Tom Slingsby takes a nose dive into the water ahead of Race 1, on Race Day 1 of the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix in New York, USA. Saturday 30 May 2026. Rolex SailGP Championship Event 6 2026 Season. Photo: Ricardo Pinto for SailGP. Handout image supplied by SailGP<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, with all the problems with the cranes, the stress was high,\u201d Bot\u00edn said. \u201cThe conditions also required the 24-meter wing, which makes the boat way harder to sail in these conditions than anything else. So it was a lot of stress, but then we came out, and luckily we got some races in, brought the boat back in one piece, and had some spectacular sailing, so it was very nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
And while it wasn\u2019t the opening day teams hoped for, the energy from the shoreline never wavered.<\/p>\n
U.S. SailGP Team strategist Anna Weis said: \u201cIt was super cool knowing that everybody was out there wanting to see us race. It was really special. The sun was out shining and the views of Lady Liberty and Manhattan were in the background.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Los Gallos SailGP Team driven by Diego Botin, United States SailGP Team driven by Taylor Canfield and Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team driven by Dylan Fletcher in action on Race Day 1 of the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix in New York, USA. Saturday 30 May 2026. Rolex SailGP Championship Event 6 2026 Season. Photo: Ricardo Pinto for SailGP. Handout image supplied by SailGP<\/p>\n
All teams now prepare for Championship Sunday \u2013 and their chance to make their mark in front of Governor\u2019s Island and the Manhattan skyline. Repairs to the Bonds Flying Roos F50 catamaran are ongoing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Opening day of the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix delivered a chaotic shootout as teams battered wet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[15738,17],"class_list":["post-32306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-sailgp","tag-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}